Seek First
Photo by Evgeniya Shustikova
It is good for us to want good things.
We want to be loved; we want to be surrounded by beauty; we want to live in safety and joy; we want to accomplish big dreams.
But this also leads to many questions:
Who will love us?
Will our lives be beautiful?
Can we find safety and joy?
How do we accomplish big dreams?
I have the same answer to all of these:
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Matthew 6:33
Even seeking the kingdom of God can be a little big and overwhelming at times, so I recommend starting with seeking His righteousness. When we are in a hard place in life, it is vital that we fix our eyes on what we know is true and guide our actions likewise.
Maybe we are strapped with guilt because we don’t understand grace. We can still repeat verses and truths that tell us we are forgiven and try to pursue righteousness.
Maybe we are overwhelmed by the sadness in the world and we want to help fix it, but we’re also struggling to take care of ourselves. We can preach truth to ourselves that because Jesus died on the cross, everything will be redeemed, and we are worth taking care of. We can pursue self-care with intentional focus and discipline because we must learn to steward ourselves before we can help others.
Maybe we feel unworthy of love and so unwanted that we don’t even want to try anymore. Accomplish big dreams? You barely have hope to make it to the end of the workday, much less set a five year plan. And does anyone even truly love us?
Friend, you are so worth loving.
Because Jesus died on the cross for your sins, you can repent and have peace with God. And when you have peace with God, He will bring you to those who will try to love you like He does. They won’t be perfect and you’ll still have many sad and heavy nights where you have to look to Him for hope, but there will be moments where you’ll know that people love you and that you are worth loving.
It is in this place of desperation that we are to seek righteousness.
As we pursue righteous living in response to God’s grace, we begin to learn and experience truths that help us hold onto hope, slowly stronger and better. And as this pattern continues: seek righteousness, learn truth, we not only obey God’s commands, but we learn why they are good.
At first we obey in faith, trusting that “because God says so” is our only reason, and then over time we learn the love and care and kindness behind His commands. We learn that God is good, and that God is trustworthy, and that God loves us, both in our messy state and as we start to walk how He calls us to.
He is the one who gives us big dreams.
Maybe your big dream is to be married and have a family. Maybe you dream of starting a business. Maybe you want to go into entertainment and use the arts to move the hearts of the masses towards wisdom.
Whatever it is, seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.
God knows what we need. And we can trust that whatever we receive from His hand - whether blessing or hardship - will work out for His glory and our good.
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